Lola Sherman

Stories by Lola Sherman

OCEANSIDE  Starting July 1, Oceanside residents and businesses will be permitted to water outdoors only every other day. Those with addresses ending in an odd number may water on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday while those with addresses ending in an even number may water on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. No one may water on Fridays. Also, residents and businesses may water only 10 minutes at a time in one location. Washing sidewalks, driveways, porches ...

OCEANSIDE  The Oceanside City Council voted to cut $2.7 million from its operating budget for next year, rather than dip into reserves. Many in a standing-room-only crowd of about 130 people Wednesday urged the council to spend “rainy day” reserves to shore up the budget, rather than making proposed cuts in police, fire and library services. “It's raining,” resident Bill Parks told the council. The operating budget for the current fiscal year is $120 ...

OCEANSIDE  When young single mother Carmen Ruiz was bagging groceries at a now-shuttered Safeway store in Oceanside, she knew she wanted to do something more with her life. Safeway was replaced by Vons, and Carmen graduated to cashier. It was the top attainment – along with marriage at age 18 – that her working-class Latino parents envisioned for her. But it wasn't Ruiz's vision. Hers came from hours of watching “Marcus Welby, M.D.” on ...

OCEANSIDE  The city of Oceanside could receive more than $1.4 million in federal funds to help neighborhoods blighted by vacant foreclosed homes, while also aiding families in need of low-cost shelter. The city Housing Commission has voted unanimously to use the grants to buy vacant property that would be refurbished and rented for a limited time at low cost to low-and middle-income residents. The tenants would be graduates of transitional housing programs for the ...

OCEANSIDE  Oceanside City Councilman Jerry Kern's campaign consultant has filed a complaint with the state Fair Political Practices Commission accusing members of a Kern recall effort of violating the law. Consultant Mary Azevedo said recall supporters failed to report they are backed financially by the city's police and fire unions. When the recall group Citizens to Recall Kern for Fair and Balanced Government filed mandatory financial disclosure forms with the city at the end ...

OCEANSIDE – The City Council will cut $2.7 million from its operating budget for next year rather than dip into reserves. Many in a standing-room-only crowd of about 130 people Wednesday afternoon urged the council to avoid proposed cuts in police, fire and library services by using “rainy day” reserves. “It's raining,” resident Bill Parks told the council. “Now is the time for us to protect out firefighters and police,” speaker Margaret Dailey said. “I ...

Last month, Oceanside City Manager Peter Weiss announced there would be an additional $2.7 million deficit in the municipal budget caused by an expected loss of revenue. Now he's recommending more cuts, including closing the John Landes Recreation Center, to help bridge the gap. The City Council is to discuss the recommendations at 2 p.m. Wednesday. Weiss lists the proposed cuts in a memorandum to City Council members. In it, he says that “the city's ...

OCEANSIDE  Last month, Oceanside City Manager Peter Weiss announced there would be an additional $2.7 million deficit in the municipal budget caused by an expected loss of revenue. Now he's recommending more cuts, including closing the John Landes Recreation Center, to help bridge the gap. The City Council is to discuss the recommendations at 2 p.m. Wednesday. Weiss lists the proposed cuts in a memorandum to City Council members. In it, he says that ...

OCEANSIDE  The City Council has approved an urgency ordinance, effective immediately, forbidding the establishment of medical marijuana dispensaries in Oceanside. After hearing from 17 speakers, many lobbying passionately for or against marijuana, the council voted 4-0 for the ban at its meeting Wednesday night. “It's the moral and legal thing you should do,” Dion Markgraaff, head of San Diego Americans for Safe Access, said in urging the council to reject the ban. “Tons of ...

OCEANSIDE  The city's police and fire unions have acknowledged what Oceanside political observers have suspected all along: They are supporting the proposed recall of Councilman Jerry Kern. “The decision did not come easily,” Greg deAvila, president of the firefighters union, and Houston Alvis, police union president, said in a joint statement. “Our decision to endorse the Citizens To Recall Jerry Kern was made carefully and deliberately,” the statement said, adding that the councilman's actions ...

OCEANSIDE – Councilman Jerry Kern defended his plan Wednesday to raise money to fight a recall proposal by charging $1,000 for hunters to shoot pheasants May 22. Two Oceanside residents, Joan Brubaker and Dorothy McCorkle, attacked his his fundraising idea at Wednesday's council meeting. They said it isn't sporting to shoot birds who are raised in captivity and don't know how to protect themselves when sent up into the wild just to be killed. Brubaker ...

OCEANSIDE – The City Council Wednesday night approved an urgency ordinance, effective immediately, forbidding the establishment of medical marijuana dispensaries in the city. After hearing from 17 speakers, many lobbying passionately for or against marijuana, the council voted 4-0 for the ban. “It's the moral and legal thing you should do,” Dion Markgraaff, head of San Diego Americans for Safe Access, said in urging the council to reject the proposed ban. “Tons of people need” ...

OCEANSIDE  The City Council on Wednesday will consider an interim urgency ordinance placing a moratorium on medicinal-marijuana dispensaries in Oceanside. An urgency ordinance requires a four-fifths vote of the five-member council and would go into effect immediately, without the usual 30-day waiting period for a new law. However, Councilman Jack Feller said Friday that there is no marijuana purveyor waiting in the wings to cause emergency action. “There is nothing out there,” Feller said. ...

OCEANSIDE  For decades, one of the first buildings seen by motorists southbound on Interstate 5 into Oceanside was the landmark Flying Bridge Restaurant and adjacent Bridge Motor Inn. The motel was remodeled a few years ago into a Guest-house Inn, but the iconic, rock-faced restaurant remained as it was. Now, plans call for the structures to be razed and replaced with a four-story Hyatt Place Hotel and a separate, four-story condominium complex on the ...